A November Walk

It most certainly is November.  Today was blustery, cold, gray, and just about as November as it could be, especially when compaired with the recent relatively warm days.  Earlier in the day we decided that tonight we would use up the remaining ingredients from our sushi making night and have homemade california rolls but we needed more wasabi powder so an outing to Old Town was added to the agenda.

We have always loved walking around the Old Town area and that section of Lincoln Park.  I find this area of town to be inspiring and all together lovely.  And during a late fall afternoon it has the extra charm of quieter sidewalks than say an afternoon in August.  Yesterday we took a walk around our current neighborhood and while I had taken the camera with me, I didn't feel inspired to take a single picture.  This afternoon I was busy trying to sneak in as many shots as I could before Dan's patience was thoroughly tested.

We ended up walking through a courtyard where some of our wedding photos were taken so took a quick family portrait...

A New Leaf is one of my favorite places in the city.  I sometimes have made sly suggestions on routes for afternoon walks so that we would end up walking by but today no extra coniving was required as it was on our route.  They did not disappoint me...

But once we hit the edge of the park there was not a chance of getting out the camera as Shelby's feet started flying.  That little dog was ecstatic to be in Lincoln Park.  It has only been two weeks since our Halloween walk but that must be an eternity to her compared to the days when it was nearly our front yard.  She ran us straight to the beach with only a few breaks to play with some friendly dogs.

Shelby prefers these fall beach trips as they are significantly less crowded and she doesn't have to worry about being squished by all the foot traffic.  Both the dogs had a blast running on the sand.

This little lucky husband gets to spend more time walking dogs when I tote along the camera. 

Then after a walk down memory lane of Clark and Shiller streets we hit the Spice House.  This is becoming one of Dan's favorite places to haunt. 

This time I am the one holding the dog leashes while he disappears.  I think I love this place even more since they let me know that I could bring the dogs in while I waited instead of standing in the cold.  But then just imagine two wild little monsters in a spice store.  I think they were in heaven.  Each one of them got a chance to go off with Dan and do some shopping.  Yup, they thought they were pretty important.  Eddie may or may not have snuck his nose into a spice jar and into a lady's basket.

My pictures at the Spice House were not quite what I wanted.  It is quite the challenge to hold a wild thing's leash in one hand and take a non-blurry photo at a shutter speed of 1/4.  I am curious if they would let me bring in my tripod next time... There is just to many great photo ops in there so I am tempted to ask or maybe just go on a sunny day.

It was quite the fun little afternoon.  And the sheer November-ness of the day made it feel like Thanksgiving really could be approaching very soon.